New Zealand's Auckland is first major city to welcome 2025 with fireworks and light show
Voice of America
FILE - Fireworks explode over Sky Tower in central Auckland as New Year celebrations begin in New Zealand, Jan. 1, 2023.
Auckland has become the first major city to welcome 2025, with thousands of revelers counting down to the new year and cheering at colorful fireworks launched from New Zealand's tallest structure, Sky Tower, and a spectacular downtown light show.
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Silvia Carlucci and Domenico Fabiani, who were fired by the Vatican Bank in October 2024, after their wedding violated a ban on workplace marriage, show their wedding photos during an interview with The Associated Press in Rome, Jan. 27, 2025.
FILE - A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw, in this Feb. 28, 2013, illustration photo.
Queensland, Australia
U.S. warplanes hit what officials describe as high-ranking operatives of the Islamic State affiliate in Somalia, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday.
Migrants board an Italian coast guard vessel as part of a transfer operation from the asylum processing centers in Albania back to Italy following a court decision in Rome, at the port of Shengjin, Albania, on Feb. 1, 2025.
Commuters ride past a bank set ablaze by militants in the Kalat district of Pakistan's Balochistan province on Feb. 1, 2025. Eighteen soldiers were killed in the attack, police and the military said.
Ukrainian servicemen fire a mortar toward Russian troops at a front line near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 28, 2025. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Reuters)
FILE - Myanmar police hand over five telecom and internet fraud suspects to Chinese police at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug. 26, 2023. Sources tell VOA that scam operations in Myanmar are expanding south along the Thai border. (Xinhua News Agency via AP)
Israeli Ofer Kalderon, who has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, waves before being handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas fighters in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 1, 2025. Israeli Yarden Bibas, 34, who has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, is escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 1, 2025.
FILE - A man takes a picture of his wife with Taranaki Maunga, previously known as Mount Taranaki, in the background in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Sept. 26, 2011. FILE - New Zealand's Taranaki Maunga, previously known as Mount Taranaki, has a warm glow lighting the snow peak, June 12, 2011.
A rescued pug plays in the home of Cheryl Gaw in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025. Cheryl Gaw plays with some of the 2,500 pugs she has rescued in South Africa at her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025. Pugs pause for a photograph at the home of Cheryl Gaw in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025.
FILE - European Union Ambassador to the United Nations Olof Skoog speaks to the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Oct. 27, 2023.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 31, 2025, in Washington.
A man rides a bicycle past the landmark clock tower of the central Syrian city of Hama on Jan. 27, 2025.
FILE - This picture shows sailing boats in Skjervoy Fjord, in northern Norway within the Arctic Circle, on Nov. 15, 2024. A map of the Arctic Region
The homepage of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine's website on Jan. 31, 2025. Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the organization, says many Ukrainian media outlets face the threat of closure after the United States froze all foreign aid for 90 days. The homepage of Frontier Myanmar's website, Jan. 31, 2025. Ben Dunant, editor-in-chief of the magazine, says, “It is difficult — or even impossible — for many [media outlets] to make commercial revenue” in war-torn Myanmar.
President of Mozambique Daniel Chapo, center, arrives for a summit in Harare, Zimbabwe, Jan. 31, 2025. Mozambican authorities have assured refugees who fled to Malawi after post-election unrest that peace has been restored and they are welcome to return home.